Report: Jags heading to London for multiple games

But when St. Louis pulled out of “hosting” responsibilities recently, the league needed someone to send overseas.

Apparently, the Jaguars are that team.

Vito Stellino of the Florida Times-Union reports that the Jags have called a press conference for tomorrow, where owner Shad Khan and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will announce that the team will “play multiple games” in London.

The Jags have made no secret of wanting in on overseas trips, seeing them as a de facto advertisement for their city.

At the same time, they’ve been careful to tell their ticket-buying fans they have no intention of moving. That’s a fine line to walk, when they’ve been so eager about reducing the inventory.

26 responses to “Report: Jags heading to London for multiple games”

Those international games are a pretty special deal with an opportunity to play in front of a new audience on a global scale. Big time opportunity for the Jaguars to get some exposure but as the heading says hopefully this isnt a way of saying, slowly but surely we gonna creep out of Jacksonville and onto a bigger market.

Why is Roger so insistent on not promoting the NFL in London? If he has any real desire to promote American football in London, then for chrissakes send some of the best teams instead of bottom feeders like the Rams, Vikings, and Jaguars.

When the English football teams tour America, they don’t send their crappy teams. They send Man United and Chelsea, the premier teams that Americans have at least heard of for soccer.

At the end of the day, Khan would still have to open the books and show 3 straight years of losing money in order to move the team. The stadium lease is also pretty iron-clad.

As a Jacksonville resident and season ticket holder, I am actually not opposed to this. On top of saving me money, this gives me and my family a reason to go to London every year.

One more note: I know millions of dollars in a drop in the bucket for a guy like Khan, but what would the value be in dropping 4 million on a new locker room and “European Spa” if he intended to move the team any time soon?

Why is Roger so insistent on not promoting the NFL in London? If he has any real desire to promote American football in London, then for chrissakes send some of the best teams instead of bottom feeders like the Rams, Vikings, and Jaguars.

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I disagree. I think he should send the middle/lower tier teams to London to at least see if the game itself generates interest.

I’ve always disliked the whole London idea.
8 home games for all.
Somebody is losing one. If it was my team,I’d be furious.
While it may seem like no big deal to those of us who aren’t Jags fans,how would you feel if your team played one less home game than the rest of the league?
Even season ticket holders,how would you feel?
Home field is huge in the NFL and regardless if its a low tier team,its not a even playing field.
Unfortunately,like everything else in the world,its all about money.

Why can’t they take two away games from the teams crossing the pond? Is London going to put Jaguars logos around Wimbley to get a home feel for the fans and players? Will the merchandise stores be predominately the “home teams” attire?

Hey covercorner- nice job on the cheap shot at Jags. But perhaps next time you should do a little research.The Jags outdrew seven NFL teams last year including Chicago, Miami ,Oakland, and St Louis. Pittsburgh- yes Pittsburgh, who supposedly is the greatest football town anywhere, only averaged about 700 more fans/game than the Jags. The reality is that other than the freakshow that is Dallas, there is a top tier of about ten teams and then everybody else(except Cincy) is within 10,000 tix/game. Bottom line is the Jags have had a boring product on the field for several years and fans in Jacksonville have lots of alternatives for their entertainment dollars. The new owner is a breath of fresh air and the new coaching staff appears to have a clue. Jacksonville is a great town and a great place to live. We’re happy to share a game each year with London.
Haters gonna hate !

Hey covercorner- nice job on the cheap shot at Jags. But perhaps next time you should do a little research.The Jags outdrew seven NFL teams last year including Chicago, Miami ,Oakland, and St Louis. Pittsburgh- yes Pittsburgh, who supposedly is the greatest football town anywhere, only averaged about 700 more fans/game than the Jags.
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Being a Ravens fan I can’t believe I’m gonna do this, but the truth is the truth. Yes, the Steelers did “only” average 700 more fans than the Jags, but that was because of their stadium capacity. The Steelers sold every ticket in Heinz Field legitimately. Go on stubhub and look at the ticket prices for any game in Pittsburgh. Now go on stubhub and look at the ticket prices for any of the Jags games. The Steelers don’t have to give away a pair to each person who bought a Whopper and fries like they do in Jacksonville… (ouch, that hurt standing up for the rabble in Pittsburgh. Please don’t make me do it again.)

Keep spinning, Jags fans. With “facts” like this you can work for Obama’s re-election team!

The Jaguars built their stadium to a much larger capacity than the Steelers. If the Jaguars had a smaller stadium, idiots wouldn’t be spamming “LA!!!” and “TARPS!!!!1” in every thread related to the team.

And don’t think that the NFL is sending “crappy” teams to London. They’re taking advantage of the less popular (nationally) teams and taking away THEIR home games, then sending a nationally popular team over as an “away” team. Look at the list of games played there.

I don’t think any NFL city could survive a GM/Head Coach combo of Shack Harris and Jack Del Rio for 7-9 years without fans revolting and refusing to surrender their hard-earned cash for that tripe. That’s what happened leading up to and including 2009. Since then the GM got fired, which helped. The owner then fired himself, and thankfully took Jack of the River with him.

It’s new era here in Jax. There’s a ton of enthusiasm and excitement surrounding this club, it’s new owner, and new coaching staff. Y’all can live in 2009 if you want, but we’re looking forward.

Clovercorner>>> The Jags play at the stadium that holds the FL Ga game every year. Last years attendance was 84,000+. Yup, we have some tarps covering some seats. Why do you care? You’re obviously just an uninformed hater.

covercorner says:
If the Jags are such a top draw, why do they have to cover thousands of seats with tarps?

They have to cover seats because the stadium capacity is larger than the market demand for the NFL. The stadium has a capacity of roughly 73,000 without the tarps. The stadium was built large for one major reason: the annual Florida-Georgia game, which draws more than 80,000. They have to roll in collapsible bleachers to meet the demand. That one game is a major cash cow for the city every year.

When the Jaguars arrived in 1995, the initial excitement of an NFL team meant the stadium was full for every home game. In 1996, when the Jaguars made an improbable run through to playoffs, the place was always full. Over the next few years, the attendance settled into what it’s been for many years, between 62,000 and 65,000 on average for the non-premium seats.

Since the stadium was much larger, Wayne Weaver wanted to avoid blackouts and asked the NFL about covering just under 10,000 seats. This alleviated the blackout issue (except for 2009, when the city was hit hard by the economy). Things have changed dramatically since then, and the team is back on track with ticket sales. Naturally, the new ownership, new coaching staff and new players have raised the excitement level in the city again.

Perhaps had you done a few simple Google searches, you could have learned all this yourself, instead of making uninformed, snarky comments about something you know nothing about.

Good. Keep my team the hell out of London after 2015. Once that brand new stadium, with just under $500 million from public money off pulltabs Mpls tax etc… opens, we better not be playing any Minnesota Viking home games outside of Minnesota beginning 2016 for a long long time.

Last two years in the dome, fine. One, maybe one and a half years at TCF, fine. Whatever. Take a home game or two or three over there while the Minnesota People’s Viking Stadium is being built.